Why Communities Love When You Make Mistakes (Really!)
Gina Bianchini explains why communities thrive when founders admit mistakes and iterate publicly. She recommends workshopping loops to listen and adjust, using Mighty Networks as an example of how adding features like native courses across versions kept the platform relevant. Guided hosting beats letting the community decide everything.
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I truly believe a community in this moment, in the next five years is the perfect business. Because what your community is doing, by the very nature of being a community powered by People magic, is that they are showing you the path forward for where they want to go next. So what's actually really cool is, number one, communities are really forgiving. They're a phenomenal place to try things, to get things wrong. Hi, I'm Gina Bianchini, and this is People Magic, where I am going to show you the absolute easiest way to create a $1 million community.
Hey, Gina. I created my community almost a year ago. Yay. The connections people are making are really, really wonderful. In fact, my community is kind of evolving into something I wasn't really expecting. For example, my members are kind of transitioning out of what I had originally set out to do. Totally understandable. I just, I'm kind of in uncharted waters territory as far as what I do with them next.
Well, so first of all, congratulations. This is what is known in the world of communities, in the world of People Magic, a high class problem. So what I'm hearing you say is I went through People Magic profit. I've used the nine steps. It's working. And now I'm starting to see my members wanting more. I'm starting to see all of these ideas and opportunities for where I can take my community. And I don't know the best way to think about how to get there. So here's the beautiful thing. The whole concept of workshopping this, this opportunity to come in and see what's working, what are we learning, what are people interested in doing? It is there for these exact moments. So that work shopping loop is there for these moments. What also makes me really happy to hear from what you're describing is that it is a great example of where I truly believe a community in this moment, in the next five years is the perfect business. Because what your community is doing, by the very nature of being a community powered by People Magic, is that they are showing you the path forward for where they want to go next. So what's actually really cool is, number one, communities are really forgiving. They're a phenomenal place to try things and to get things wrong. Because, you know, my favorite is recently I was in a live stream and I was having technical difficulty with like, my screen and my camera and my microphone and everything. And people were so supportive. I think I had one person basically say, why? Why are we spending all this time on Gina's AV equipment? Which I appreciated it Was, it was a fair point. But communities are forgiving, which means that not only can you listen for and get inspired by what your members are hungry to go do next, hungry to get from you, but you can also take and apply it in the ways that are going to work for you. So for example, one of the things that I see that is the, the anti pattern, the way not to do this is I'm going to let the community decide everything. It's a little bit like, you know, when you go out to dinner with a group of friends, but you don't know where you're going to go yet and everybody's like, I don't care, I'll, I'll do whatever. It's like, at a certain point that's not helpful. So you don't want to be the kind of host who's like, I don't know, what do you guys want to do? Like that sounds great. Like, sure, whatever. I'm going to let you guys decide. People get very uncomfortable with that in a community. They want to have some, someone who is creating the framework for them to build relationships with each other. Now, again, that framework can evolve over time. It can also stay perfectly the same. Either one can work. The key thing is that you are creating that workshopping loop. You are, you are listening, you are adjusting, you are finding those light bulb moments. You're thinking about it because it's fun. It's fun. Fun and energizing to see what people want out of not just a community that you're creating, but a business that you're creating. Because it turns out people tend to know what they want to go pay for next, what value they want created next. So I'll just give you, you know, my own example of this, which is when we first started Mighty Networks, we had no idea that online courses were ever going to be a part of our platform. And they weren't for the first year. And what happened was, as we put out just the earliest, earliest version of what has evolved into people magic. This, this ability to take and have automation and AI and advanced software to make connections between people that are the most valuable to them and evolve those relationships. So. And more people are getting value from more people in that community, in that network. What we found was that we were attracting course creators and we were attracting people who were stuck with content businesses that wanted to evolve those content businesses into both a content and community business, a people magic business, so that people were connecting with each other to go and consume or apply those frameworks, or apply those Courses. So the first thing we did, we were like, okay, cool. Well, why don't we, you know, make it really seamless to integrate or connect online course platforms that exist out there. And so we did that first. And our hosts, as we call them at Mighty Networks were like, that's great, Gina. But no, we want actually courses built in natively. It's. They were, they were, they were great. They were like, it's not that hard, just go build it. So we were like, okay, that's actually really interesting. So we built the first version of courses into a mighty network and we saw it take off and we also saw all the places where there were opportunities for it to get better and iterate. And iterate. We're now on our side. 6th version of courses within a mighty network. And the ways that you get to them and the different things that you can use them for has evolved as well because we've continued to have these kinds of workshopping loops with the people we're co creating with, with some of the best creators in the world, as well as folks that are just getting started. So I think that just this opportunity to stay open to where and how you can try things next, this is a high class problem. This is something to embrace and celebrate. And because a community is so forgiving, you can try new things. You can try new things and then you just keep learning from them, you keep workshopping. It's really that easy. And where you might end up, maybe it's not where you thought you would end up, but if you're open to might be where the most value is. Where people that you couldn't imagine serving and knowing and learning from and being energized by where they and you ultimately end up together. And that's one of the really magical pieces of this kind of business. Creating a community with people magic and monetizing it through multiple different means. From courses to memberships to challenges to events to, you know, other things you can build as well. From merchandise to coaching and everything in between. There are so many tools that you have in this people magic toolbox to be able to experiment and explore and create together. It's exciting. And all you have to do is pick one thing to try next. Just the one thing. That is the next move. Just the next move. You don't have to overthink it. You don't have to think about everything. You don't have to have everything worked out in advance. Just what is that next move? And that is why this is such an incredible kind of business to build. I'm Gina Bianchini. Thanks for tuning in. This is People Magic. Thank you for being a part of People Magic. If you want more of a deep dive into how to build a $1 million community so valuable that people will pay for it, we have a website. The link is in the show notes. And if you've got your own burning question about building a business fueled by this thing we call people Magic, I want to answer it. So there is another link in the show notes to record a question. I cannot wait to hear from you. So thank you, and thank you for being a part of People Magic, and I really look forward to your questions.
